Those software-laden DVDs that adorn the covers of newsstand computer magazines can get you into serious trouble in Japan, where four staff at a book publisher have been arrested because of naught software included in the popular 'onserts'.
Those arrested include an executive (Yoshiaki Kaizuka) of Sensai Books, which had …

Re: Ahem. IANAL, but...

"Conversely, as you say in the article, most Linux distros include libdvdcss or libdvdcss2. You can download those for free from the repos anyway."

That is going to be an interesting one...

AKAIK you're not supposed to even lend a music CD to a friend in Japan. That is an existing law, not this new one. Kinda explains Sony's unbelievable attitude to the rest of the world (rootkits on CDs, no Linux on PS3, etc etc). And given that the Japanese government is easily influenced by big business it is not surprising to see the laws being extended so.

Re: Ahem. IANAL, but...

AFAIK in Japan it is not illegal to lend a music or film DVD/CD to a friend in Japan. However, if this is illegal then most Japanese people are oblivious to it as several have told me it's fine to do so.

Not to worry !

Soon GNU/Linux will be outlawed as infringing the divine right of MPAA, RIAA, and a motley crew of local vassals from extracting the artificial monopoly profits that those copy-prevention mechanisms are meant to ensure. No doubt, we find ourselves before the gates of that innovation paradise promised us by the promoters of something called «intellectual property» (otherwise known as shamelessly stealing - and then patenting - others' work (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU)) and when all such infringements have been rigorously stamped out we will be allowed in, upon showing the tickets that we have duly purchased at monopoly prices....

Henri

PS : I had first thought to cite Thomas Jefferson to the effect that «the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God», but then thought better of it, as I didn't wish to fall into the bad graces of that eminent Reg philosopher, Andrew Orlowski....

Re: most Linux distros include libdvdcss

Eh, no they don't. Only popular one I'm aware of is Mint. Most the big hitters, e.g. Fedora, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu or Redhat don't. At least without manually selecting additional repositories to install software from.

Re: most Linux distros include libdvdcss

It's not in an official repository for any of the above. Major distros definitely don't include it because of the legal issues; the same legal issues would make it just as bad to have it in an official repository which was disabled by default.

It's usually available through an arm's-length third party repository - these exist basically specifically for the purpose of distributing packages with legal problems. They aren't run by or controlled by the distribution project itself, and are usually based - in so far as they can be said to be based anywhere physical - somewhere with laxer IP provisions. They rarely have US mirrors as US hosts don't want the liability.

The basic thrust of the story seems to be that this is something new and crazy and possibly specifically Japanese. It certainly isn't. You could get into a lot of trouble distributing dvdcss on a cover disc in the U.S. or Europe also, under the DMCA and EUCD implementation laws. Such laws clearly ban the redistribution of 'copyright protection circumvention' tools. This is hardly news, either - the consistent attempt to enlarge bans on 'circumvention' is one of the biggest beefs people have with DMCA, EUCD and SOPA.

It's not freedom, it's greedom

Innovation and creativity lose again. No, I'm not in favor of rampant piracy and I absolutely think that creators deserve recognition and PROFITS for their creative work. The problem is that innovation and creativity have essentially nothing to do with profit maximization as the publishers see things. Their main concerns are with creating monopolies, minimizing the actual payments to the actual creators, and preventing any form of derivation reduces their profits. If they could only get an agreement with the other publishers, they would probably stop producing ANY new or innovative content.

What we really need are innovative new financial models. Don't look at the existing publishers to create them.

Re: It's not freedom, it's greedom

Re: It's not freedom, it's greedom

That's all very idealistic, but the reality someone has to put in the money and connections to promote a creative piece of work, otherwise it'll be a drop in a vast universe of other content, for no-one to find. How do you expect creativity to thrive without money and popularity? It's the same in business as well, not just creative enterprises. Publishers are like venture capitalists of the arts. The alternative is going free with ads and get an even smaller pittance from something like Google.

Indeed

Most stories on the register have currency converted into the local currency of the journalist (although Japanese Yen should have been listed first, followed by the conversion). Richard is Australian, hence AUD. Also, The Reg has quite an audience in Australia, so for "many readers" AUD works just fine.

In general, many people have a vague idea of different currencies, if anyone has ever wanted to buy from overseas or go overseas (most People I would think) then a quick look at a currency website, or watching the news occasionally will help (I'm Australian, and have had no trouble keeping up with the usual "currency X => GBP" that goes with many stories here).

I, for one...

Like to welcome our dear readers who do put in the effort of converting currencies to something they're more familiar with.

But, I know, it's a scary world out there, and it's always comforting to be spoon-fed information in a way that will protect you from exerting any effort whatsoever.

Word of caution:

Don't let yourself be thrown off track when articles speak about linguine, speed of sheep in vacuum, olympic-sized swimming pools, etc. Be assured, all those can be converted into units you may be more comfortable with.

Re: a politician in Greece

Under such a law

Re: Under such a law

The current BBC Radio 4 talks by Helena Kennedy: "Capital Justice" have been about the joint development of Common Law and Capitalism away from Adam Smith et al's ideas of self-regulating efficiency to the recent (Thatcher/Reagan) promotion of monetarism and greed.

There's too much of this going on

These terrible criminals are everywhere - lots of apparently innocent programs have built-in routines to break the industry standard ROT13 encryption. I trust the Japanese authorities will arrest all the perpetrators!

In Finland...

...even having a copy of libdvdcss has been illegal since 2006. Fine or up to one year in prison may follow. Helping a friend to find dvd software for linux with libdvdcss hidden inside? Go to jail. Both of you. Travel to Finland with libdvdcss as binary, source or print? Go to jail. Have libdvdcss in your possession? Go to jail.

One court case I know of resulted in guilty, no fine, but pay legal fees of some 14 000 euros. This given to two persons for showing a Haskell version of CSS decrypting on a forum.

Primary purpose of libdvdcss is circumventing technical protection, which is a criminal offence.